“Where’s Thia?” he asked, not bothering with the niceties, not that Dec was known for conversational niceties to begin with.
“Okay, before you flip out… Jacque began.
“Too late,” Jen muttered, getting a glare from her friend.
“Fane and Costin have her,” Jacque continued.
“They aren’t here?” he asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Honestly” Sally spoke up. “We thought they were bringing her back to you two.”
“Have you contacted them?” Jen asked, tapping her forehead indicating the bond.
“He’s blocking me,” both girls said at the same time with eerily similar irritation in their voices.
“They probably just decided to take her on a stroll,” Jen said, eyeballing her mate.
Decebel’s hands were fisted tightly at his sides. “Yes, because Costin and Fane are often possessed with the desire to take a stroll around the mansion with a three-day-old infant.”
“That’s not a fair sarcastic statement,” Jen said. “There’s never been a three-day-old infant in the mansion, so we have no idea if they are the infant-strolling type. Who knows, maybe they both secretly want to be nannies.” She paused and pursed her lips. “Though, they would be called mannies or wannies, because they’d be werewolf nannies. Okay, sorry, sidetracked. Anyway, maybe all their lives they wanted to be wannies but have never been presented with the opportunity to pursue their dream. Maybe Mary Poppins was their role model, and they’ve never told anyone for fear of being ridiculed.”
“And maybe when Santa farts it smells like candy canes,” Jacque said, rolling her eyes at Jen.
Jen grinned. “Are you bitter because your mate wants to be a wannie? It’s okay to have mixed feelings about it.”
Decebel snarled. “Are you two done?”
Before they could answer, Sally’s phone rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket. Not bothering to look at it, she answered. Thinking it was Costin, she put it on speakerphone so he could explain to Thia’s father why he and Fane had stolen the child.
“Sally, it’s Rachel. I’ve got some information for you about a plant that can be used as skin dye. I happened to have some on hand, so I mixed you up a batch—” Rachel’s words were cut off as Sally ended the call. Her eyes were wide as she looked at Jacque. It was a look of guilt that Jen had long ago come to recognize on her friend’s face.
“Sally … what was all that about skin dye?” Jen asked, her eyes narrowed on Sally, watching as her friend fidgeted. “And why do I think it has something to do with my daughter?”
“No, it’s for Sally,” Jacque blurted out. “You see, it’s embarrassing, and Sally didn’t want you to know, but Costin has this blue body paint fantasy … and … and … Sally wants to indulge it for him. She’s just … well, you know how Sally is. She’s very obliging. Just wants to make her man happy, that’s our Sally.” There was complete silence when Jacque stopped speaking.
Sally looked like she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her, while Jacque looked as though she was going to puke.
“And these are the people you trust with our child?” Decebel bit out through clenched teeth as he turned to look at Jen.
Jen held up her hands. “In my defense, they’ve never, ever talked to me about creepy cartoon fantasies. If I’d have known sixteen years ago that Sally was going to be such a freak, I would have befriended her much sooner.”
Jen was pretty sure that if steam could come from a man’s ears it would have been pouring out of her mate’s.
Decebel pulled his phone from his back pocket, pressed a button, and then held the device to his ear. After several seconds, he spoke. “This is your Alpha. When you get this message, you are to call me immediately. That is an order.” He ended the call and then looked at Sally. “I can’t give Jacque orders, but you are a member of my pack. You, I can give orders to. As soon as you hear from Costin, you are to contact me. Am I clear?”
Sally nodded, her lips tightly pressed closed in a straight line.
He gave them one last snarl for emphasis, then turned and walked back in the direction of their suite.
“Where are you going?” Sally called after him.
Without turning back to look at her, he shouted out, “Hunting.”
“He’s going to hunt our wannies, isn’t he?” Jacque asked.
“You know things are going from bad to worse when a werewolf is hunting wannies,” Jen said, turning back to her friends.
Sally shook her head. “At this point, the ridiculousness of our conversations has begun to lower my IQ. I’m literally getting dumber because of your wannies.”
